A Helping Hand
by mosylu
Summary: It's bad enough that Jyn has to sit in the ER waiting room for over an hour with a probably-broken wrist, she has to listen to the blaring TV, too? With the help of the weirdly capable guy in the waiting room with her, Jyn takes matters into her own hands. A modern Rebelcaptain AU


For the prompt "meeting in the E.R." from Tumblr

Two (2!) people asked me for this one. Not that I've ever, um, fantasized about cutting the power cable to one of those obnoxious waiting-room TVs - no sir, not me …

* * *

"Oi!" Jyn yelled at the front desk.

The woman behind the desk lifted her head. "What?"

"You got a remote or something back there? Something that can shut that yapping box off?" She waved her good hand at the TV high up in the corner of the E.R.'s waiting room.

"No," the nurse said.

Jyn shifted the ice pack on her wrist, grimacing as a trickle of chilly condensation went rolling down her front. "What? Nothing?"

"No."

"You're telling me that in addition to sitting here with a probably broken wrist for over an hour, I have to listen to that cheeto-headed Jabba the Hutt you lot call a president?"

"Now, that's not very nice," said the dark-haired man sitting off to one side, in a calm, accented voice.

Jyn glanced over, already annoyed.

His sharp-featured face was bland and unreadable, but there was an unmistakable glint in his eye as he went on, "What did Jabba ever do to you?"

Her own laugh surprised her. "Right, yeah, that's true. I'll have to apologize to him if we ever meet up."

The nurse's eyes narrowed. "If you don't like it, you can both go back where you came from," she said, and it didn't sound like she was referring to their respective apartments. "But the television stays on."

Jyn let out a huff and started to cross her arms, and winced when her wrist throbbed. "Well, can you at least tell me when someone can see me?"

The nurse made a show of shuffling papers. "It'll be awhile. We're very busy." She got up and drifted off toward the doors to the outside.

Jyn gaped. "Where'd she go?"

The man leaned over and squinted. "She's having a smoke."

"And I thought the NHS was bad," Jyn said. She glared at the TV, then considered lines of sight. If her calculations were right, a column blocked the TV from the nurse's vantage point outside the front doors.

She got to her feet, cradling her bad wrist against her chest, and one-handedly dragged a chair directly under the TV. Climbing up on the thin plastic seat, she squinted up at the TV's black case.

She refused to believe there wasn't some kind of bloody off-switch.

There wasn't any kind of bloody off-switch.

A footstep caught her attention, and she looked over to see that the man had drifted over and stood next to her chair.

"I'm not getting down," she snapped. "One way or another, this damn thing is going to shut up."

"I know you're not," he said. "I'm here to catch you when you fall off that piece of junk they call a chair. Wouldn't want you to break your other wrist."

She considered him, feeling an unexpected softening in the region of her shoulders. For the first time since she'd gotten off the phone with her father some hours earlier, she didn't want to rip someone's throat out with her teeth - a feeling that hadn't been helped when she'd been knocked on her arse by a scooter the minute she stepped out on the street.

She cleared her throat. "I can't exactly brace myself on your shoulder, so, uh, you mind steadying me?"

"Oh." His hand hovered around waist-height. "Uh. Here okay?"

"Perfect. Yeah."

His hand settled in the small of her back, warm and solid. She reached up, tugging at the mess of cords that went up into the ceiling. "Fuck," she said. "It's all plugged in somewhere up in there. They're really dedicated to bringing us this quality Fox News content, aren't they?" She dug in her pocket and pulled out her pocketknife.

As she struggled to open it one-handed, he said, "You don't want to use that."

"Oh yes, I do," she growled around it, trying to open it with her teeth.

"No, a pair of scissors would be much better."

She gawped down at the scissors he held up. "Where'd you get those from?"

He smiled up at her. "I have my ways."

She took them from him and stretched up as far as she could. For a moment, her balance wobbled, and she thought, _Shit_ \- but his hand pressed into her back, steady, strong, holding her up.

She targeted the HDMI cable, as it was thinner than the power, and snipped. With a pop, the cheeto-headed Jabba the Hutt dissolved into static.

"Ahhhhh," she breathed.

"Bliss," he said, one corner of his mouth crooking up.

She handed the scissors back and started to hop down. But he held up his hand, and she thought, _I've still got a bum wrist and I'm off balance and tired, and -_ She took his hand in her good one and let him help her off the chair.

She dropped his hand quickly, telling herself she wasn't blushing. "Jyn," she said.

"Cassian," he said in kind. "Have you really been here an hour?"

"Yeah, and my ice pack's all melted too. What are you in for, Cassian?" She looked him over. He looked fine to her.

 _Extremely_ fine.

"I'm tempted to say something like a shark attack, but actually, I'm waiting for my friend to get off work," he said. "I've already texted him twice. He tends to lose track of time."

"Your friend?"

"Head of Emergency Medicine," he said, holding up his phone. "We're supposed to get lunch after his shift. He was interested to hear that a patient had been waiting all this time."

She brightened. "You mean I might see somebody before nightfall?"

"Hey!" the nurse yelped, coming back in. "What did you do?"

"Me?" Jyn said, wide-eyed. "It just cut off. Didn't it?"

"Completely on its own," Cassian said, straight-faced.

"You did something," the nurse accused. "I know you did."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Jyn said. "Can I get another ice pack, if nobody's going to come see me?"

The nurse's eyes narrowed, but at that moment, a very tall, thin man stomped around the corner and said, "What the fuck?"

"Ah, Kay," Cassian said.

"What the fuck," he repeated. "What's the complaint?"

"Wrist," she said. "Probably broken."

"That's my job to determine," he snipped at her. "Come on, let's get this over with."

"Marvelous bedside manner," Jyn commented to Cassian cheerfully. She was much more comfortable with it than she would have been with cooing and solicitude.

"He makes up for it with personal charm," Cassian agreed, trailing along after them.

"I never know what you're talking about," Kay said peevishly. "Why are you coming? Do you know this woman?"

"I'd like to," Cassian said. "But I'll sit outside the room, if that's all right."

Jyn found herself smiling at him. "That's all right."

"Fine, whatever," Kay said. He glanced up at the dead TV. "Oh, good," he said. "Someone finally shut up that yapping box."

FINIS


End file.
